Tamil Nadu’s Panchamirtham prasadam granted GI tag

The famous Palani panchamirtham, given as ‘prasadam’ at Murugan temple in Palani, Tamil Nadu has been granted Geographical Indication (GI) tag. This is first temple ‘prasadam’ from Tamil Nadu that has been bestowed with coveted GI tag. It takes total number of such indigenous products from Tamil Nadu that have been accorded GI tag to 29.

About Panchamirtham

It is an ‘abhishega prasadam’ (food that is a religious offering), which is served in a semi-solid state. In Tamil, term ‘pancha’ means five and ‘amirtham’ means delicacy.

It is combination of five natural substances —jaggery, banana, cow ghee, honey and cardamom. Besides, these five basic ingredients, dates and diamond sugar candies are also added for flavour.

It is sweet in taste. It one of main offerings for Lord Dhandayuthapani Swamy, the presiding deity of Arulmigu Dhandayuthapani Swamy Temple, situated on Palani Hills.

It is prepared naturally without addition of any artificial ingredients and preservatives or any chemical process. No water is added during preparation of panchamirtham. This gives it its classic semi-solid consistency and taste.

The geographical area for production of Palani Panchamirtham is not just Arulmigu Dhandayuthapani Swamy temple, but entire Palani town in Dindigul district of Tamil Nadu.

About Geographical Indication

It defines goods as originating in territory of a country or a region or locality in that territory, provided a given quality reputation or other characteristics of the product are attributable to its geographical origin.

The product to acquire GI tag has to indicate that it is of particular origin and has  certain unique quality or reputation or some other characteristics, which is essentially attributable to its geographical origin.

In India, GI tag is given by the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks, who is Registrar of Geographical Indications (under Union ministry of commerce & industry) under statutory provisions of Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection Act), 1999.

Month: Current Affairs - December, 2020